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Monthly Archives: October 2018

There would be a 5 day national regatta ready to sail for the first time at Navarre Beach. The Hobie 16 North American Championships would make use of Santa Rosa Sound starting from Monday to Friday to assess the national champion for 2018. The regatta is a competition of 16 foot catamarans which is a kind of boat designed by the Hobie Cat Corporation.

Hobie is a Southern California based company manufacturing distinct types of watercraft from 1950. With the Hobie 16, there would be over 60 teams taking part in the race, which is a weeklong one to determine the final winner.

Krista Vind, a resident of Santa Rosa Beach and also the race organizing volunteer said teams from across the US which includes Washington, New York and California and Mexico and Puerto Rico will take part. The location of the regatta is changed every year, along with some which repeats. The event, held three years ago was at Pensacola Yacht Club. As far as the Navarre Beach is concerned, it is hosting the event for the first time post a bid handed over by a representative.

As per Vind, there are a whole lot of considerations made in terms of the type of sailing, lake or an ocean, as well as whether to open a youth category. People sail in Navarre Beach always and they know the regatta supports numerous boats.

Although there are many features, the prominent one is the Special Olympics, which is like a mini regatta. The mini regatta will take place on Wednesday at around 11 30 am. The event is mainly organized for the benefit of the sailing team of Special Olympics for Santa Rosa and Escambia counties. The sailing competition will definitely be an interesting one and a week filled with a whole lot of fun, excitement and curiosity. The winner will be determined post completion of races after a week.

The Blind Match Racing Championship was organized for the first time by the Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club in the UK. The winner of the championship was Sharon Grennan from Britain who is totally blind. She was accompanied by her crew members Lucy Hodges and Liam Cattermole who are visually impaired. Sharon’s GBR1 team was not defeated in any of the 13 races. The event was attended by HRH the Princess Royal who was a part of the semi final event to watch the race and interacted with race officials, competitors, sponsors and event organizers.

Sharon said it was her first medal in gold segment and it’s a great feeling. She, along with her team had an excellent time racing against different teams from the USA, Canada and Australia. The entire team put in hard efforts to prepare for the world championship, including a training camp in Zadar. They worked more on communication and teamwork on the boat and the roles were divided. The team also underwent training on how to sail in distinct weather conditions which made them perform so brilliantly. It was undoubtedly the best feeling for the winner besides the team got a chance to meet sailors across the world. Sharon said that she was highly competitive on the water and off the water; she got to learn a lot from others.

Laura Cammidge won the silver medal and said it had been a great week of racing. The team learned to sail in variable weather. Although they didn’t get the outcome they aimed for, they did push themselves as hard as they could. The team was indeed happy with the silver medal and sailing the entire week was a great experience by itself. Walter T Rainer won Bronze in the Petit Final. Walter said it was a good trip to Scotland with a Bronze medal. It was a team effort which made these winners achieve medals.

The team of Polar Bears had another fine season; however, they missed out the chance to have their boat at the nationals for the first time after 2013. At the Callagy Ross Trophy, Bowdoin finished at the first place Harpswell Sound Team and the Fall Foliage Regatta raced in 2017-18.

The preview of 2018

Frank Pizzo, Head Coach has the reason to get excited about Polar Bears returning to nationals in this season and all thanks goes to the solid group of returning performers. 2018 All-NEISA skipper Matt Kaplan and 2017 All-NEISA crew Louisa Lindgren look to play a big role once again for the Polar Bears. Matt Safford, Alden Grimes and Christian Filter will be the major players on the co-ed side with Kelsey Slack and Claire Havig the leading women’s younger and talented team. This is one of the most awaited performances in this season.

Schedule of 2018

Bowdoin started this season with four regattas. The four regattas were performed all across the region at different places. The highlighted events fall for the Polar Bears and these included two home regattas: the Urn Trophy and the Barnett Trophy. The the Schell Trophy and Match Race Championships are the other big events in addition to all four National Showcase Regattas.

Follow the more details online

If you want more information about the Bowdoin sailing team performance in all season, then follow the official website of Bowdoin Athletics.